Jasper Renk, Senior Investment Manager Illiquid Assets Natural Capital, and Evert van den Brink, Director Institutional Sales Benelux/ Nordics, both from MEAG - A Munich Re Company, which manages the assets of Munich Re and ERGO and provides investment solutions for institutional and private clients from outside the group, discuss forestry as an asset class.

Wood is a popular raw material that we use in our everyday lives. From office paper to packaging and hygienic products, furniture at home and even entire wooden houses, the versatility of this natural material is in high demand. At the same time, wood is a robust substance that, when treated correctly, literally supports large parts of the logistics and construction industries. Our special relationship with wood stems from our proximity to it: forests are natural recreational areas offering not only flora and fauna but also retreat and tranquility.

However, our relationship with wood is also highly ambivalent. While we enjoy using practical and beautiful wooden products, we are reluctant to harvest the trees that provide them. This attitude is only rational to a certain extent, as the most important feature of wood is probably that it is a renewable raw material provided by forests which, as trees are living organisms, also have limited life cycles.

Read the full ‘Thought Leadership’ article at the link below